This invention relates to percussion instruments such as a bongo, conga and drum, and more particularly to an electronic percussion instrument whose sound generating means is constituted by an electric circuit.
An electronic percussion instrument of this type has conventionally been available wherein when a beat plate is applied with a beating force, a switch disposed below the beat plate is actuated to produce a signal in the form of pulse which in turn enables an oscillator circuit to generate an output therefrom. However, the output of the oscillation circuit was preselected irrespective of tone quality and volume of sounds produced through the beat plate and accordingly it was constant without relating to the strength and application speed of the beating force, i.e. the amplitude and width of the pulse signal. For this reason, even when the strength and application speed of the beating force were varied, obtainable sounds were almost uniform or if enriched with slight piano and forte expressions, they were not in a clear tone.
On account of the aforementioned disadvantages, the conventional electronic percussion instrument per se was unable to produce various sounds such as of low-pitched tone, high-pitched tone and glissando tone. Therefore, for a practical performance, it was necessary to arrange a plurality of electronic percussion instruments exclusively used for a specific sound.
Further, beginners in attempting to produce soft and continuous sounds often suffered from fluctuations in the strength of sound and it was necessary for players to be highly skilled in order to succeed in producing, by the application of a fine beating force, uniform strength sounds without fail.